Viking_Yearbook_93

The Portland State women’s soccer squad completed its first winning season in its second year of existence, as the Vikings shutout the Pacific University Boxers 2-0 on Oct. 30 to finish a 8-4-2 year. The Vikings started off the season with a victory, barely beating a Linfield club, but from that point they rolled through their schedule dis­ playing toughness, enthusiasm and lots of talent. Talent and the added experience at the Division II level for two years, has helped the players improve on an inaugural season record of 4-6-4 in 1991. Part of the talent surge this year is goaltender Robin Heard who played in every single game of the campaign and was instrumental in most of the Vik’s wins. The 5-foot-7, 135-pound goalie registered seven shutouts and had a sparkling 1.90 goals against average in her first sea­ son as a Viking. “Beating Linfield at the start of the year 1-0 was a letdown but gradu­ ally, we improved a whole bunch,” Heard said. “Through believing in ourselves, things just came together and we ended up jelling.” The new found enthuisiasm for the 1992 season was helped along by midfielder Beth Blumklotz who tallied the second highest goal total of the year with four and forward Millette DeSpain who contributed six goals to lead the team. DeSpain and Blumklotz were the main offensive weapons for the Vikings as each hauled in 15 and 10 points respectively for the year. Both also contributed three and two assists to pace the team to inspiring play. “Everybody wanted to play soccer,” Blumklotz said. “Plus, Bemie [Fagan] had a year behind him in working with women.” If there was anything that has served head coach Bernie Fagan in attracting quality players is his reputation as a players coach and making a fullfledged collegiate program work at an unstable atmosphere. Despite having no athletic scholarships or any out of state tuition waivers at his disposal and with these deficencies he still